St. Louis, Mo. – (November 2, 2019) – Heading into Saturday's finale at Saint Louis, the Fordham men's soccer team knew it needed a win and some help to have a chance of improving its seeding for the 2019 Atlantic 10 Championship. The Rams took care of the business they could control, taking home a 2-0 win from the Billikens behind a two-goal performance by
Tomer Zloczower at Hermann Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri.
With the win, Fordham improved to 5-2-1 in the Atlantic 10, 6-10-2 overall, while Saint Louis fell to 6-2-0 in the league, 10-6-0 on the year. The Rams end the regular season with 16 points, good for fifth in the Atlantic 10 and the #5 seed in the conference championship.
Fordham took a 1-0 lead in the 34
th minute of the first half. With Fordham in the offensive end, Saint Louis tried to clear the ball near the top of the box. Fordham's
Adrian Valentine got in the way of that clearance, deflecting the ball to
Tomer Zloczower at the top of the box. He then connected on a shot inside the right post for his first goal of the season.
Konstantin Weis
The score remained a 1-0 through most of the second half, as Saint Louis tried to find the equalizer. The Fordham defense was up to the task, as the Billikens sent 12 shots toward the Fordham goal in the second half.
Konstantin Weis came up with four saves in the half for the Rams, the biggest one with two minutes left in regulation. Matteo Kidd took a shot that was heading for inside the right post, but Weis made a diving save with his hand to force the ball over the end line for a corner kick.
The Rams defended the corner kick with
Johannes Pieles outletting the ball to Zloczower near the sideline. Zloczower then put on a one-man show in the midfield to kill time and was able to chip a shot over the Saint Louis goalkeeper who was away from his net for his second goal of the game and a 2-0 victory.
The Fordham men's soccer team will now await the official announcement of the Atlantic 10 Championship quarterfinal match-ups by the league office on Sunday morning. The match will take place either November 9
th or 10
th.
The semifinals and championship final are set for November 15
th and 17
th, respectively, at Fordham's Jack Coffey Field.
